Publication Ethics and Malpractice

Ethics Policy

The Texas National Security Review expects all authors to comply with the ethical obligations of their discipline. We primarily employ standards outlined in APSA’s Guide to Professional Ethics in Political Science and Principles and Guidance for Human Subjects Research (2020) as well as the comprehensive guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

For studies that constitute human subjects research (i.e., involve living individuals from whom data was obtained by intervention or interaction or about whom identifiable private information was collected), the submitting author must:

Declare whether the research has received IRB (or equivalent institutional body) approval or exemption. (As appropriate, this information should be redacted during peer review, but must be provided in full upon conditional acceptance of a manuscript.)

Discuss in the text or an appendix, as appropriate, the ethics of the human subjects research conducted, including (but not necessarily limited to) consent, deception, confidentiality, potential harm, and compensation.

Authors whose institutions do not have an IRB (or equivalent institutional body) should:

In an appendix intended for circulation to reviewers, indicate the absence of such an institutional body, and describe in detail their research practices with respect to human subjects and any other ethical obligations.

Provide the editorial team at the Texas National Security Review with official documentation substantiating the absence of such an institutional body at the time of submission.

Upon conditional acceptance for publication in the Texas National Security Review, authors of studies involving human subjects should expect to provide evidence of IRB (or equivalent institutional body) approval or exemption, and other relevant documentation as requested.

Policy on Authorship and Contributorship

Authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted and permission has been obtained where necessary.

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work and that give the work appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

TNSR and its editorial staff take any allegations of plagiarism seriously and will immediately take action to address any issues. If there are any indications that plagiarism may be present in the journal’s printed work, the editorial staff, working with the publisher, will immediately investigate to determine if in fact plagiarism has occurred, and will take decisive action to remediate or retract the article in question. The editorial staff will respond to all allegations of academic misconduct in a timely manner to ensure transparency in all investigations. If the editors or publisher discover a significant error or inaccuracy, or if a charge of plagiarism is brought against an author, they will immediately contact the author to determine the validity and scope of the ethical breach. The editor-in-chief retains final authority to determine if an article will be revised or retracted, in coordination with the publisher and editorial team.

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper if deemed necessary by the editor. If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains an error, it is the obligation of the author to cooperate with the editor, including providing evidence to the editor where requested.

If an allegation arises post-publication, TNSR will conduct investigations following COPE guidelines in cooperation with the authors and their affiliated institution. Any instance of unethical publishing behavior will be investigated, even if it is discovered years after publication. TNSR Editors and the University of Texas Press follow COPE recommendations as a guideline for ensuring that investigations are effective. If an error or misconduct are confirmed, a correction or retraction will be published in the journal.

Any investigation of misconduct will be conducted in cooperation with the ethical committee of the corresponding university or organization. While investigating an article, we will publish the statement “This article is currently undergoing investigation.” This note remains in place until the concern is resolved.

Allegations of Research Misconduct

TNSR encourages scholarly debate and recognizes that with many topics there can be a wide range of valid professional opinions that fall within the bounds of scholarly disagreement. Post-publication discourse is essential to scholarly rigor and helps advance the science and understanding of the entire community.

Any complaints of research errors, falsification, or fabrication will be taken seriously by the editors of the journal. Upon notification of any potential misconduct, the editors will consult with the author, reviewers, and other members of the editorial team or editorial board to determine if the complaint rises to the level of academic misconduct. The Editor-in-Chief retains the right and responsibility to correct or retract articles that have been found in violation of the research misconduct policy.

The following list are actions that the Editor-In-Chief may take in response to the confirmation of academic misconduct.

Correction: In cases where an author has made an honest mistake, or discovered a discrepancy after publication, a correction may be issued. Authors should contact the editor of the journal, who will determine the impact of the change and decide on the appropriate course of action.

Article Retraction: Used for infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, falsification and fabrication.

Article Removal: Used in cases of legal issues. This will only occur where the article is clearly defamatory or infringes on others’ legal rights, or where the article, if acted upon, might pose a serious risk.

Conflicts of Interest

TNSR strives to maintain the highest standards for objectivity and integrity in the publication of scholarly literature. Transparency is of utmost importance in determining whether a conflict of interest exists in any manuscripts submitted to TNSR. Anything, real or perceived, that if undeclared but discovered later would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived meets TNSR’s definition of a conflict of interest.

All authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest before commencing work on any portion of the journal, or as soon as reasonably possible once a conflict of interest is discovered. The TNSR editorial team will adjudicate any instances of conflict of interest in accordance with COPE guidelines to ensure the journal upholds the highest standards of objectivity and integrity.

If during peer review, reviewers suspect undeclared author conflicts of interest, they must inform the editor immediately. The editorial team will evaluate the conflict of interest in accordance with COPE guidance to determine whether review can continue. If readers of published articles report possible undisclosed author conflicts of interest, the journal will follow relevant COPE guidance and issue a correction if appropriate, or retraction.

Complaints and Appeals

TNSR takes complaints of published scholarship seriously and will take appropriate action. Any complaints alleging plagiarism, research misconduct, conflict of interest, or any other ethical breaches will be forwarded to the editorial team for immediate action. The editorial team, under direct guidance of the Editor-in-Chief, will investigate all complaints to determine if any ethical breaches or misconduct has occurred. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for issuing any corrections or retractions for works published by TNSR. The editorial team will respond to any complainants with results of the investigation and concrete steps taken to correct ethical breaches if any are found.

AI Policy

University and academic norms are evolving rapidly in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), and we may adapt or modify policies in accordance with evolving standards. The use of AI, including but not limited to software tools, large language models, and chatbots, is discouraged in submissions to the Texas National Security Review. If authors use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in their writing process, we recommend that these technologies only be used to improve readability and language of the work and not to replace key authoring tasks such as producing scientific, pedagogic, or analytic insights, drawing conclusions, or providing recommendations. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control and all work should be reviewed and edited carefully, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors are fully responsible for the content of submitted manuscripts, including any portion produced by AI software or tools, and are liable for any breach of academic or professional ethics.

Authors who use AI in any capacity to write their manuscript, produce images or graphic elements, or to collect or analyze data, are expected to be open and transparent in disclosing what AI software was used, how, and for which parts of the manuscript, and to answer further questions if requested. Authors shall disclose in their manuscript the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies and a statement will appear in the published work. Declaring the use of these technologies supports transparency and trust between authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and contributors and facilitates compliance with the terms of use of the relevant tool or technology.

Authors should not list generative AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. AI cannot be listed as an author of a paper, and as a non-legal entity, it cannot be responsible for the submitted work, nor can it assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest, copyright, and license agreements. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans. Each author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved and authorship requires the ability to approve the final version of the work and agree to its submission. Authors are also responsible for ensuring that the work is original, that the stated authors qualify for authorship, and the work does not infringe third party rights, and should familiarize themselves with TNSR’s ethics policy before they submit.

Responsibilities of TNSR Editors

Editors evaluate manuscripts exclusively based on their academic merit (novelty, technical merit, quality of the data, conclusions, importance for the academic and policy community, and presentation), regardless of the authors’ citizenship, race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religious belief, political philosophy, gender or sexual orientation. Decisions to publish are not determined by the policies of the University of Texas or any other agency outside of the journal itself. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication of that content.

Editors and the editorial staff will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, or members of the Editorial Board, when appropriate.

Editors will not use unpublished information for their own purposes. This information will be kept confidential. Editors will only evaluate manuscripts for which they have no substantial conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Peer review is an essential part of academic publishing. Peer review assists editors in making decisions and provides authors with comments that enable them to improve their manuscripts. All manuscripts received for review are confidential documents; they must not be shown to or discussed with others, except as authorized by the Editor-in-Chief. Reviews should be objective and professional. Comments to authors should help authors improve their manuscript and should avoid any personal criticism.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors and identify any holes or deficiencies in the research. If a reviewer identifies any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other manuscripts, they should notify the editors at once.

Reviewers who have conflicts of interest should disclose them to the editors to declare their conflicts of interest. The editors will determine whether the conflict is sufficient to exclude the reviewer from peer review.

Information in the manuscript should not be used in a reviewer’s own research. This information must be kept confidential.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors should accurately describe their research and objectively discuss their work. Articles should be accurate, objective and comprehensive, while editorial “opinion” or perspective pieces should be clearly identified as such. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior.

Authors may be asked to provide raw data for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available, if practical. Authors should ensure the accessibility of data to other competent professionals for at least 7-10 years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Authors should ensure that they have written and submitted only entirely original works, and if they have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the work reported in the manuscript should also be cited. Papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal or primary publication. Authors should not submit for consideration a manuscript that has already been published in part or in full in another journal. Submission of a manuscript concurrently to more than one journal is unethical publishing behavior.

Only persons who meet the following authorship criteria should be listed as authors on the manuscript, as they must be able to take public responsibility for the content: (a) made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, or analysis/interpretation of the study; (b) drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and (c) have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication. All persons who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support), but who do not meet the criteria for authorship, should not be listed as an author, but should be acknowledged in the “acknowledgements” section. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate coauthors (according to the above definition) and no inappropriate coauthors are included in the author list and verify that all coauthors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its publication.

Authors should—at the earliest stage possible (generally at the time of submission and including a statement in the manuscript)—disclose any conflicts of interest that might influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. Examples include financial ones such as honoraria, educational grants or other funding, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, participation in speakers’ bureaus, membership, and paid expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements, as well as non-financial ones such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs about the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the work should be disclosed (including the grant number or other reference number, if any).

Authors should properly acknowledge the work of others and should also cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately (from conversation, correspondence or discussion with third parties) must not be used or reported without written permission from the source. Authors should not use information obtained in the course of providing confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, unless they have obtained written permission from the author(s) of the work involved in these services.

Authors are obliged to cooperate fully by responding promptly to editors’ requests for raw data, clarifications, and proof of ethics approval, patient consents and copyright permissions. In the case of a first decision of “revise and resubmit”, authors should respond to the reviewers’ comments systematically, point by point, and in a timely manner, revising and re-submitting their manuscript to the journal by the deadline.

Responsibilities of the University of Texas Press

The publisher is involved in handling of unethical publishing behavior. In cases of academic misconduct, plagiarism, or fraudulent publication, the publisher (with the editors), will clarify the situation and take actions including publication of an erratum, correction or even the retraction. The publisher with the editors, will prevent the publication of fraudulent papers and will not allow misconduct to take place.

The publisher is committed to the availability of publications and ensures the content preservation/accessibility by partnering with the appropriate organizations.